V. British Gardening, as empirically practised
699. The use of gardens is perhaps more general in England and Scotland than in any other country, if we except Holland. The laborious journeyman mechanic, whose residence, in large cities, is often in the air, rather than on the earth, decorates his garret-window with a garden of pots. The debtor deprived of personal liberty, and the pauper in the workhouse, divested of all property in external things, and without any fixed object on which to place their affections, sometimes resort to this symbol of territorial appropriation and enjoyment. So natural it is for all to fancy they have an inherent right in the soil; and so necessary to happiness to exercise the affections, by having some object on which to place them.
